I’m still quite confused about why exactly he decided to start with Revolutionary France rather than America or any of the other places that defined themselves by a unique place and a unique nation. Especially with the fact that he goes into German stuff which honestly feels like a better starting point.

  • Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.comM
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    1 year ago

    Very interesting listen.

    What I found particularly cool is that Rousseau’s point - defining what constitutes a nation and that people unwilling to follow it should be forced to do so - while being wildly libertarian at the time, now sounds like something today’s libertarians would be horrified of.

    His points about Mazzini’s ideology were beautifully argued

    Your first duties - he told Italians - are towards humanity. You are men, before you are citizens.

    Just beautiful. This does remind me how extremely modern his thought still is (something something European federalism)